Two Per Cent of US Road Deaths Are Cyclists

630 “pedalcyclists” were killed in the USA during 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), who've just released the official data. Those cyclists made up two per cent of the total motor vehicle fatalities for the same period.

What the dry statistics don’t tell us is what percentage of the total number of American cycling public this number represents. And even bicycle advocacy groups like The League of American Bicyclists and Bikes Belong seem to have a hard time locking down such a figure. But Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) can at least advise that in 2009, sales of bicycles outstripped cars, with 2.55 million bikes sold, compared to 2.4 million cars and trucks.

And whilst it is great to hear that fatalities decreased by 12%, relative to 2008 data, that fiigure would provide little comfort to the friends and families left to pick up the pieces after the death of the loved ones.

Some of the less headline-capturing statistics are also worth dwelling on.

Whereas 630 cyclist died, a whopping 51,000 were injured. Male riders are seven times more likely to end up a fatality than a female cyclist, and four time more likely to be injured. to 70% of fatalities occurred in urban areas, with 67% killed in non-intersection road accidents. Interestly just shy of of one quarter (24%) of cyclists who died recorded a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 g/dL or higher., so we should not point the figure solely at other road users.

Commenting on previous such data releases regarding cyclists did not fully convey the whole story, The League of American Bicyclists noted, “a recent Federal Highway Administration study found that 70 percent of bicycle injury events in emergency rooms did not involve a motor vehicle and 31 percent of bicyclists were injured in non-roadway locations. The number of bicyclists visiting hospital emergency rooms is estimated to be in excess of 500,000 per year.”

And although these numbers are all a bit scary, they need to be put into some context.